A quarter of us homes see prices fall

Photo credit: Michael Patrick

A quarter of homes in the US have seen their prices fall in the past year, according to new figures from Zillow.

The site's latest report shows that, despite the ongoing market recovery, 27.9 per cent of homes lost value over the past year.

Before the housing market crashed, an average of 21.2 per cent of homes were losing value. In December 2008, 81.6 per cent of homes lost value, the highest amount during the recession.

Markets on the East Coast and in the Midwest had the highest share of homes that lost value. A staggering 48.1 per cent of homes in Baltimore decreased in value over the past year. Philadelphia (43.4 percent) and Washington, DC (41.2 per cent) also had large shares of homes losing value.

Conversely, few homes lost value in hot markets like Denver, Dallas, San Jose, and San Francisco, which all saw double-digit home value growth over the past year. Less than 5 per cent of homes in Denver (1.5 per cent) and Dallas (4 per cent) were worth less in August 2015 than they were a year ago.

"We're not going in reverse, but we are hitting the brakes a bit in some markets," said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. "It's easy to say the recession is over when a third of the biggest markets are more expensive now than ever before, but we're still seeing a number of homes losing value. The reality is there are still areas lagging behind in the recovery."